On 5 October 2020, Minister of Climate appointed Monika Kubkowska, D.Sc., Deputy Director for Research in the Sylwester Kaliski Institute of Plasma Physics and Laser Microfusion.

Monika Kubkowska, D.Sc., has been associated with the Institute since 2007. For over 9 years, she has been the head of the Department of Nuclear Fusion and Plasma Spectroscopy, and since 2019 - the IPPLM Director’s plenipotentiary for EUROfusion, namely the European nuclear fusion program, and the head of the Scientific and Industrial Center New Energy Technologies (CeNTE).

For years, she has been actively involved in and has led international and national research projects dealing with, among others, the development of diagnostics for the W7-X stellarator, including the PHA system; research and optimization of the processes accompanying plasma-wall interaction in a fusion device.

In 2016, by the decision of the President of the Republic of Poland, she was awarded the Bronze Cross of Merit for achievements in activities undertaken for the development of the economy. Last year, the IPPLM Director awarded Monika Kubkowska the 1st degree award for outstanding scientific achievements in 2011-2018.

Monika Kubkowska, D.Sc., is a graduate of the Faculty of Physics at the University of Warsaw. It was there that she received a doctorate in physical sciences in the field of physics in 2007. In July this year, the NCNR Scientific Council awarded Kubkowska, D.Sc., a postdoctoral degree in exact and natural sciences, a discipline of physical sciences.

Photo: © IFPiLM

On 18-27 September, the 24^th Science Festival was held in Warsaw. Traditionally, the program of the event included several hundred meetings with science: main debates, evening gatherings, meetings for children and teenagers, exhibitions and festival lessons for schools. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, some of the live lectures and demonstrations were available online, some were previously recorded and shared through the YouTube platform.

The Institute of Plasma Physics and Laser Microfusion, as it was the case also in the past, participated in this event.

Dr Paweł Gąsior conducted a lesson entitled "Lasers: the music of light" in one of Warsaw's schools. The eighth grade students learned, among others, what is the difference between "ordinary" and laser light as well as what are the possibilities and applications of different types of lasers, and finally the safety rules of their handling.

If you want to get acquainted with the lesson of Dr Paweł Gąsior, recorded in the Laboratory of Laser-Induced Plasma Spectroscopy in the IPPLM, visit the Science Festival website.

Another lesson, this time online, was conducted by Tomasz Fornal, M.Sc. The lecture entitled "Nuclear fusion, or a short story on how to bring the Sun to the Earth" made it possible for students to learn about several main ways how to obtain electricity, what the fusion reaction is all about and what conditions must be met to carry it out in laboratory conditions. They also got acquainted with the most important nuclear fusion projects in Poland and all over the world.

The Science Festival in Warsaw was initiated by the scientific community of the University of Warsaw, the Warsaw University of Technology and the Polish Academy of Sciences in 1996. The first edition took place a year later. As part of the festival, more than one hundred scientific and educational institutions, institutions promoting culture, associations and scientific societies invite enthusiasts to join their meetings.

Photo: © IFPiLM

On 29 September 2020, the Institute of Plasma Physics and Laser Microfusion was visited by Tomasz Nowacki, Director of the Nuclear Energy Department at the Ministry of Climate, and Arlena Kubiak, Senior Specialist of the same Department.

The visit began with a meeting with the IPPLM management and the chairman of the Scientific Council. Director Andrzej Gałkowski presented the main directions of research in the field of plasma physics and nuclear fusion carried out in the Institute. The guests also watched the latest film about activities of the IPPLM.

The last point of the meeting covered the presentation of infrastructure and research equipment. The guests saw, among others, the PF-1000U system, one of the world's largest plasma focus devices, and proceeded to the Plasma Thrusters Laboratory, the High Power Lasers Laboratory and the GEM Detectors Laboratory.

Photo: © IFPiLM

With deep regret and great sadness we learnt about the death of Dr. Andrzej Kasperczuk (1942-2020), a long-time employee of the Institute of Plasma Physics and Laser Microfusion.

Dr. Kasperczuk graduated from the Military University of Technology in 1974 and then started working as an assistant at the Faculty of Chemistry and Technical Physics at the Military University of Technology. He studied plasma generated in plasma focus devices. His first task was to develop and launch multi-frame laser interferometry and auxiliary optical diagnostics to study plasma. He also dealt with numerical methods necessary to process interferograms. Dr. Kasperczuk conducted many experiments which led to numerous publications, and their culmination came as a doctoral dissertation entitled "Interferometric studies of the formation and decay of the plasma cord in the plasma focus PF-150 device" defended in 1984. The team he joined dealt with the study of the structure and dynamics of the layer plasma. Joint efforts were awarded in 1989 by the Minister of Science and Higher Education.

Witnessing the great experience and effectiveness in performing research, the management of the Institute entrusted Andrzej Kasperczuk with a new important task, namely to manage the construction of laser interferometry for a large T-15 tokamak under construction in the former USSR. The team carrying out this task consisted of the IPPLM employees and those of the Institute of Precision and Optical Instruments at the Warsaw University of Technology. Unfortunately, the project was not completed as the T-15 tokamak construction program came to a close. The innovative ideas of solutions proposed for this interferometer were applied for other systems.

After 1990, the scientific activity of Dr. Kasperczuk focused on researching laser plasma, and particularly laser plasma in an external magnetic field.

The basic diagnostics used in this research was a unique 3-frame interferometric system co-authored by Dr. Kasperczuk. The system made it possible to obtain the time-space distributions of plasma concentration, allowing to study the influence of the external magnetic field on the dynamics of the laser plasma. Dr. Kasperczuk played a significant role in the interpretation and analysis of the results of these studies. Thanks to his efforts, many articles were published in prestigious journals which are still referred to by laser plasma researchers.

Since 2001, there have been new opportunities to conduct interferometric studies at the PALS (Prague Asterix Laser System) laser system in Prague as part of the Laserlab projects in which Dr. Kasperczuk took part as the main researcher. With his significant participation, a multi-frame interferometric system was installed and launched on the PALS which provided the team at the IPPLM with great opportunities to undertake effective research related to various areas of laser plasma applications, in particular research on the implementation of inertial fusion (ICF - Inertial Confinement Fusion) as well as the research related to the so-called laboratory astrophysics.

A new method of plasma streams generation proposed by Dr. Kasperczuk turned out to be a great success during the interferometric research at PALS. The application of a massive target made of a material with a relatively high atomic number (Z>29, Cu) allowed to obtain a single laser beam as a result of the interaction:
• supersonic plasma streams with speeds over 500 km/s,
• maximum electron concentration in a stream above 10¹⁹ cm^-3,
• plasma beam lifetime over 2 orders of magnitude in excess of the pulse duration of laser radiation.
This method turned out to be competitive as opposed to very complicated methods applied to generate plasma streams through multi-beam illumination of conical targets which were implemented only on the largest laser systems in the world, namely Nova in Livermore and GEKKO XII in Osaka.

The expectations related to the application of this method, both in research on the implementation of inertial confinement fusion (ICF) and in astrophysical research, became the motivation to undertake intensive experimental research on the PALS system where Andrzej Kasperczuk played an important role.

Thanks to this method, space-time electron density distributions (the first published in world literature) were obtained, illustrating the processes of generation and movement of the shock wave brought about by the movement of the plasma stream in the gas, the analysis of which showed the possibility of scaling them to real astrophysical objects.

The last PALS research with Dr. Kasperczuk’s participation focused on the most promising concept of inertial fusion, namely the shock ignition. In these studies, a 3-channel polar-interferometer illuminated by a femtosecond laser was applied, which made it possible to obtain information on the distribution of the magnetic field and electron concentration with very high temporal resolution. This enhanced the identification of the anomalous processes responsible for generating hot electrons which transport the energy of laser radiation to the wave initiating thermonuclear ignition.

For his interferometric studies carried out at the PALS system, Dr. Kasperczuk was twice awarded the Director's Award - including the first degree award in 2013.

The scientific achievements of Dr. Kasperczuk encompass over 120 publications, mainly from the Philadelphia list, including a large number of publications with him as the first author.

The Doctor's activity was not limited to research only. He also actively participated in organizational work. For two years he was the deputy director of the Experimental Department established at the IPPLM and created the foundations for the technological base of the Institute.

We will remember Dr. Andrzej Kasperczuk as a righteous and noble man with invaluable features of character. He was characterized by gentleness, peace and kindness. We appreciated his involvement in the Institute’s life regardless of the area concerned. Collaboration with him was always very fruitful, and its results enriched the development of the subject matter.

He will remain in our memory forever.

Photo: © IFPiLM

At the end of July 2020, an official ceremony was held in France to inaugurate the assembly of the ITER tokamak. After 14 years of signing the agreement in Paris for the construction and operation of a next-generation fusion experimental reactor, the ITER project has entered its decisive phase.

The event, which is an important step towards confining fusion as a source of energy, drew extensive media attention from all over the world.

Director of the Institute of Plasma Physics and Laser Microfusion, Prof. Andrzej Gałkowski and Prof. Monika Kubkowska, head of the national consortium dealing with fusion, joined the "Eureka" radio programme on Jedynka station. The guests explained to the audience, among others, what difficulties are involved in recreating the reactions taking place inside the Sun under terrestrial conditions and why, among all possible reactions, the synthesis of deuterium and tritium - two isotopes of hydrogen - was chosen as a source of energy for future fusion power plants.

The Institute of Plasma Physics and Laser Microfusion, the coordinator of fusion research in Poland, as part of the national scientific and industrial center New Energy Technologies (CeNTE), performs research related to the ITER project.

Link to the radio programme (in Polish): www.polskieradio.pl

The participants of the ITER project are: European Union, Japan, USA, Russia, China, India and South Korea. Seven partners chose ITER to be located in Cadarache, a small town in the south of France, near Aix-en-Provence.

ITER will be the next step on the way to confine the new source of the released energy of light nuclei fusion. The reactor is meant to generate more than 500 MW of fusion energy, with the main goal to finally demonstrate the possibility to generate electricity thanks to fusion reactions. The aim of the project is to show the scientific and technical feasibility of nuclear fusion as the basis of fusion energy.

Basic ITER parameters:
• large radius - 6.2 m;
• small radius - 2 m;
• chamber volume - 840 m³;
• plasma current - 15 MA;
• magnetic induction - 5.3 T;
• plasma concentration - 10²⁰ m⁻³;
• discharge duration - 500 s in pulse mode and 1000 s in quasi-continuous mode;
• power of plasma heating devices (electromagnetic waves with frequencies of 50 MHz and 170 GHz and particle beams) - 75 MW;
• plasma temperature - 120 MK;
• power generated (in the fusion reaction) - 500÷700 MW;
• gain factor (fusion power/heating power) - 10 in pulse mode and 5 in quasi-continuous mode;
• average load of the tokamak’s surface due to neutron radiation - 0.5 MW/m².

An extremely important issue on a global scale is to provide people with a stable source of energy. It is possible that nuclear fusion will provide a sufficiently large amount of usable energy (practically infinite), while remaining a safe source, available at any point on the globe and not causing the emission of hazardous gases into the atmosphere.

Only one question remains to be answered: when will we be able to develop the technology allowing to obtain electrical energy from fusion on an industrial scale, and when fusion energy will be economically profitable. Professor Andrzej Gałkowski answers this question quoting Lev Arcymowicz, one of the pioneers of nuclear fusion research: "Exactly when humanity will need it". The time is coming.

Photo: Credit © ITER Organization, http://www.iter.org/